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Out to Launch

According to this month's Wired magazine, speed enthusiast and self-described "inventrapreneur" Brian Walker is planning on shooting himself into space (or at least 20 miles into the atmosphere) via an enormous home-made crossbow. The plan is simply to "stretch a carbon-fiber bowstring 24 feet along a rail, fire up a jet turbine with 1,350 pounds of thrust, hit a trigger and pull 10 G's." Easier said than done, of course. Aside from catapulting himself, Walker is also hoping to catapult a new craze marketed to sky divers, base jumpers and other adventurous sort. Of course, the cleverly-named Project RUSH (a.k.a. "Rapid Up Super High") is just one of the man-child's many ridiculous/borderline genius ideas. Walker is still working to perfect his 300-gallon water balloon launcher aimed at putting out forest fires, and he's putting the finishing touches on his Taser gloves meant for, well, Tasering people.

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Also on Mental Floss:

DID YOU KNOW? Marlon Brando hated memorizing lines so much that he posted cue cards everywhere to help him get through scenes.
He even asked for lines to be written on an actress's posterior. (That request was denied.)